Luciano Micallef began his career as a figurative painter before developing a distinctive abstract style. Characterised by the scale of his work, the artist is best known for an innovative use of materials and obsession with colour.
Micallef contributes a conceptually-strong exhibition that betrays a strong flavour of the medium without losing itself entirely- Peter Farrugia
He spent the early 1990s as artist-in-residence at various arts institutions in the US and has most recently been artist-in-residence at a prestigious arts college in Australia.
Micallef’s own private space, Gallery 5 in San Pawl Tat-Tarġa (inaugurated in 1996) is the venue for his latest exhibition, ‘Metaphors’. It opened to an expected litany of accolades, complete with a short introductory talk by Micallef’s friend and admirer David Cooper. The cacophony of guests and clink of wine glasses was at odds with an otherwise delicate collection of work.
Something must be said about the gallery space. Beautifully laid out in sleek simplicity, it offers plenty of natural light across an open central hall. A perfect place to premiere Micallef’s latest interest – glass.
Micallef contributes a conceptually strong exhibition that betrays a strong flavour of the medium without losing itself entirely. At times it disappears altogether, as in a series of portraits on glass printed over with text.
The central interest is Micallef’s translation of his renown palette into fabulous configurations of shape and density, vivacious colour and glowing forms.
What becomes evident, as the viewer attempts to decipher a stylistic and technical language in the work, is the fact that the artist has produced a collection that somehow undermines interpretation.
The titles add to this ambiguity – under normal circumstances they might read as bombastic and puerile (“The sign of slavery is the lie”, “I have no words”) but in context, they point down pathways that lead back to a direct appreciation of Micallef’s pieces.
Reflected in the work is the artist’s love of his process. There’s the closeness of light, heat, fire – catalysts for the creation of glass art. It’s a medium that presents pure, vibrant colour evoking basic human emotion.
You can feel the presence of Rothko, Kandinsky, Monet and Seurat. There is a kinship with abstract expressionism, the common search for purity of expression. But perhaps the term ‘abstract’ would be misleading here. Maybe we should think of Micallef as a non-representational artist, trying for the most direct emotional expression possible through colour.
Against allegations that the work is more suited to hotels and restaurants than more self-conscious galleries, a viewer is left to judge for themselves where these glass pieces, wrought in colour and light, fit in the scheme of our personal response to beauty. Right now, work based on traditional crafts is cutting a new path through the staid world of traditional fine arts, despite critical and academic biases.
However, much of Micallef’s work conforms to academic expectations. It would have been interesting to see the glass object as vessel, stripped of artistic pretension and presented as daringly functional.
I’m reminded of the living beauty of a Japanese tokkuri (wine flask) that has lost its lacquer from constant handling, to reveal a rich red undercoat beneath flakes of black (I’m thinking of the fine example housed in the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas) – any object that creates an aesthetic centre without recourse to the objets d’art mentality that saturates our local scene.
Micallef’s visions in light hint at these things, but never quite embrace more than their own translucent mystery.
Walking through Gallery 5 and looking at the pieces on display, a viewer is very much in the presence of the artist and his ideas – and for that reason, your ultimate response to these glass-works will depend on your reaction to Micallef himself.
The exhibition is open at Gallery 5, San Pawl Tat-Tarġa until Saturday. Opening hours are 4 to 7 p.m. For more information, call 2141 1131/7972 9019.